Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Personality Associations With Self-Report, Performance, and Awareness of Functional Difficulties

Self-reports of the ability to engage in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) among older adults are known to be related to personality traits. However, self-reports are sometimes discrepant with performance-based IADL assessments, and little is known about personality associations with o...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences Psychological sciences and social sciences, 2010-09, Vol.65B (5), p.542-550
Main Authors: Suchy, Yana, Williams, Paula G., Kraybill, Matthew L., Franchow, Emilie, Butner, Jonathan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Activities of Daily Living
Adult. Elderly
Aged - psychology
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Awareness
Biological and medical sciences
Chronic Disease
Cognition & reasoning
Community living
Conscientiousness
Developmental psychology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Gerontology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Neuroticism
Older people
Personality
Personality Inventory
Personality traits
Poisson Distribution
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self Concept
Self-Assessment
Self-awareness
Selfreport
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Self-reports of the ability to engage in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) among older adults are known to be related to personality traits. However, self-reports are sometimes discrepant with performance-based IADL assessments, and little is known about personality associations with objective functionality or with poor insight about functional deficits. This study examined the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised profiles associated with (a) self-report of functional problems, (b) functional errors evidenced on performance-based IADL assessment, and (c) discrepancies between self-report and performance. Participants were 65 community-dwelling individuals ranging in age from 60 to 87 years. The results showed that self-report of IADL problems are associated with higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness, actual IADL difficulties with higher neuroticism and lower agreeableness and openness to experience, underreporting of problems with higher conscientiousness, and overreporting of problems with higher extraversion and neuroticism. These relationships were partly mediated by age, education, and cognitive status. When unique personality associations with self-report and performance were examined, neuroticism and agreeableness, respectively, emerged as the strongest predictors.
ISSN:1079-5014
1758-5368
DOI:10.1093/geronb/gbq037